Data processing: artificial intelligence – Knowledge processing system
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-13
2001-10-30
Davis, George B. (Department: 2122)
Data processing: artificial intelligence
Knowledge processing system
C706S046000, C706S060000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06311176
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Method and data structure for the computer-aided management of developments
The invention relates to a method and a data structure for the computer-aided management of developments, which are disclosed in particular in patents, utility models and technical publications, via classification system.
Databases are used as a clear and generally computer-aided method of managing large stocks of data, the data structure advantageously being adapted to the relationships of the data elements. A broad distinction can be made between databases organized on a tabular, hierarchical and neural basis. Conventional patent databases contain, for example, relationships to the person of the inventor, the priority date, the International Patent Classification (IPC) and many more. Specific data structures and methods for computer-aided management are known from IPC G06F 17/60. Thus, for example, investors' shares are managed and dealt in with computer assistance on computer stock exchanges, the valuation of the shares taking place by means of weightings, and these being changed accordance with economic trends. The strategy here can be determined by persons or by artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
Property rights represent a form of development management. The statutory property rights for intellectual property guarantee, in various categories, the right of the copyright holder, inventor or applicant (hereinafter referred to for brevity as the inventor) in intangible values created by him, in particular in documented developments made available to the public (hereinafter referred to for brevity as developments). In the case of patents and utility models an absolute prohibitive right is granted in respect of the inventive and novel features, which in the case of patents is optionally narrowly limited officially (hereinafter referred to for brevity as an officially right) by substantive official examination (hereinafter referred to for brevity as examination). In the remaining cases an as yet unexamined absolute prohibitive right is promised inclusively and without limitation (hereinafter referred to for brevity as an inclusive right). Only in the event of conflict is this inclusive right more closely specified at civil law and, in general, restricted or deleted. A justification for this kind of procedure is to be found in the large number of developments and in the expense entailed in an examination. Accordingly, officially examined inventive and novel features are to be found only in examined patents.
Customarily, the number of examinations is restricted simply by the fact that, by law, not all developments are eligible for examined protection. These limitations are occasionally adjusted for economic reasons. Technical and industrial utility are widespread as a criterion, since the limits of this criterion approximately coincide with the economic reasons for industrial law protection. Furthermore, this restriction has the advantage that the determination of inventive and novel features, being for the most part technically related, is comparatively simple. Nevertheless the expense increases constantly as a result of the steadily growing number of developments, since the knowledge of the world community at least doubles every ten years.
Theoretically, the absolute prohibitive right of an inventor does not result in conflicts with third party prohibitive rights. An examination endeavours to ensure this and to find, as objectively as possible and uniformly in all cases, a yardstick whereby an scope of protection can be defined for a specific level of inventiveness. In an examination, theoretically, the entire accessible stock of knowledge is cited against the possible development and examined integrally. In practice, this is done in the patent offices by experts who are knowledgeable in their specific areas. However, an examination of the world's knowledge is made more difficult in addition by the literally inexhaustible flood of information, its redundant accumulation of information and ever-narrowing specialized areas. The expense of an individual examination (in respect of one individual development) thus again increases disproportionately.
As a consequence of this the management of developments, in patent office for example, encounters an administrative limit. There are obviously two possible approaches to management without allowing the expense of an examination to increase beyond a threshold for which there are usually economic justifications.
a) The number of examinations is artificially restricted, for example in that many inventors find official rights too unattractive, for example too expensive or laborious, as compared with inclusive rights. A shift takes place, in terms of numbers, away from the official right to an inclusive one. As a result there will always only be a few official rights, as many as can be officially handled. The consequence is a civil law treatment of individual cases by case law in the event of conflicts. Case law usually differs considerably from that of an examination and is assessed at the discretion of the judges, and therefore not necessarily substantively correct. It is impractical for civil law decisions to be reached on the basis of expertise in the specialized field.
b) The quality of the examination is massively reduced in order to cut expense. As a result it becomes unobjective and so fails as an examination. The consequence is a clash between the granted official rights, which shifts the cost of an official substantive examination to other authorities, for example patent courts, or ultimately results in the virtual worthlessness of such rights.
Future practice is likely to select the method according to a), since otherwise official rights, for example examined patents, will eventually become meaningless, as is already the case in many places with the inclusively granted scope of protection for other inclusive rights, for example in the case of utility models, which increasingly result in conflicts because the scopes of protection overlap. The actual development is not sufficiently specifically defined in this case. As a result, an objective management of developments (hereinafter referred to for brevity as development management), over and above the administrative management of printed publications, is made much more difficult.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,733 discloses a tree-like data structure where concepts are used to retroactively define further concepts which are used in the patent-system. The “vector-model” of a retrieval system like SMART first developed by Salton discloses the forming of an n-dimensional vector-space of retrieval terms.
The object of the invention is to develop a computer-aided official management system for developments which, despite a steadily increasing world knowledge and an increasing number of developments, limits the official examination effort for each development in order to enable the official examination of a substantially larger number of developments for comparable overall official effort. The intention is that, as a result, an official right will be granted that reduces the possibility of conflicts with third-party rights and substantially assists development management. The development management data structure generated is intended to enable the knowledge to be organized within a classification system with a low level of redundancy.
The object is achieved by means of the features stated in the independent Patent Claims
1
and
7
. Preferred embodiments will be found in the subclaims.
Substantial advantages are computer-aided examination, official management, monitoring and maintenance of developments, the receptiveness and flexibility in the management of developments associated with a freely selected initialization time, cost limitation within the office, the synthesis of the substantive knowledge of the individual experts in the office and participating third parties, the utilization of the interests of third parties to obtain/protect official rights for
Davis George B.
IPCentury AG
Khatri Anil
Striker Michael J.
LandOfFree
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